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Getting a Bonded Title for a "Classic Car' in Texas

So as I recently blogged I bought a "classic car" with no title. It's a 1972 VW Type 3 Fastback. I bought it as a hobby, just something else to do, as if I don't have enough. I probably don't have the time or money to fully "restore" it, for now I just plan on making it run and making it look presentable. The car has no title. It was lost literally multiple owners ago. So I began the process of trying to get a title for it before I dump any money into this thing. 1st I Googled how to do this, and I printed out multiple forms: VTR-130 SOF "Bonded Title Application or Tax Collector Statement of Fact", VTR 131 "Application of Title Only", Request for Pencil Tracing, 130-U "Application for Texas Title", VTR-270 "Statement of Physical Inspection", and VTR-275 "Request for Texas Motor Vehicle Information". I carefully and neatly filled out all of this paperwork before I even went to the country tax office. So I go in there on a Fri morning and wait in line. When it's my turn I greet the super smiley, very personable and cheery (are you catching my sarcasm here?) person and tell them I have purchased a classic car with no title and I need to apply for a bonded title. She curtly informs me that she cannot help me, and instead I need "line 4", not the line I'm in (line 6). OK off to line 4. Here I am met by an equally cheery man who after he says "NEXT!" in the manner of Jebidiah Atkinson from Saturday Night Live, listens to me quickly explain that I need a bonded title for an old VW. He takes all of my paperwork, looks it over and starts frowning. "You don't need THIS or THIS or THIS...or THIS. You only need THIS (Request for Pencil Tracing) and THIS (130-U "Application for Texas Title"). He hands all of these back to me. "Send those to the office in Waco. The address is on here" and he hands me a packet of all the same forms. OK so at least I have made a little progress. I know what forms to send and where to send them to. So that same day I send just the pencil tracing and the Application for Texas Title, along with a check for $15 to the Waco office. Two weeks go by. I get a letter in the mail from the Waco office! It says that I need to send in all the forms: VTR-130 SOF "Bonded Title Application or Tax Collector Statement of Fact", VTR 131 "Application of Title Only", Request for Pencil Tracing, 130-U "Application for Texas Title", VTR-270 "Statement of Physical Inspection", and VTR-275 "Request for Texas Motor Vehicle Information". Haha! BRILLIANT! I have officially wasted my time based on the wrong facts from the county tax office. Hooray! Knowing this would not be a fast process and knowing what dealing with a government entity is like, I am not too fazed by this. I already have all those forms, I just made more copies of them for my records and sent ALL of the forms to the Waco office. Yesterday (about a week later) I receive a letter saying that they "cannot" issue a title because there is no "properly assigned evidence". This is actually VERY GOOD NEWS. It means they did a search for the title and title owner and came up empty, which means I don't have to worry about trying to contact the old owner and now I am free to apply for a bonded title or "surety bond"! Yay! This was what I was hoping would happen! I am now going to call my buddy who owns an insurance company and have them sell me a surety bond and then I can have a title. There are services that do this online, but I want to give my buddy some business (unless they want to charge me an arm and a leg haha!). So I'm calling them next week, probably. It's Friday afternoon and I am not assuming anyone will start this today anyway. Hmmm maybe I'll call him today. Yeah, what the heck let's get this party started! EDIT: Called my insurance guy, he said "no problem, we do this all the time", had me scan and email him the "no properly assigned evidence" letter, which is apparently the Golden Ticket, along with a copy of my bill of sale, and he says they will charge me $100 which is exactly in-line with what I have read that the online companies do it for. So...the process has been officially OFFICIALLY started! I'll get the surety bond then apply for a bonded title and I should get it! THEN the real work begins...overhauling this thing to make it run and look decent haha

went to the tax office friday (5 days ago). I had to quite literally argue (very nicely and politely, I might add) with them. the 1st and second county tax people I talked to both insisted that I had to have proof of inspection before I could get a title. what? this makes no sense! this car is nowhere near passing inspection. why would I dump a bunch of money into fixing up a car to pass Texas inspection if I didn't even have a title on it? the answer of course is that I wouldn't. that would be really stupid. I kept telling them I wasn't trying to REGISTER the car, I was ONLY applying for a title. they both insisted that "the computer" said they needed proof of inspection and they couldn't help me until I "produced" it haha! I laughed aloud multiple times. so glad to know that these 2 people are incapable of making any logical decision on their own. if "the computer" says I have to have proof of inspection, well then it must be so! after the 1st person told me that, I politely requested to speak to her manager. after the 2nd person told me the same thing, I politely requested to speak to HER superior. I said over and over again that this was a "title only" application NOT a "registration". neither of them could get past the computer flashing that I needed proof of inspection. AAAAHHH! waited awhile and watched the 3 of them discuss my case out of my earshot. finally the 2nd person's superior (no name tags so I didn't know if this was a manager or what) came to my window and kind of abruptly announced to me that "well if you can't produce proof of inspection then you can't register the car. all you can do today is a "title only" application! YES! this is what I have been trying to do for 35min! The 1st words out of my mouth were "I am applying for a title only"! not only that but I told both of the 1st 2 ladies repeatedly that I was *NOT* trying to register the car! I was ONLY applying for a title! good-NESS!!! so anyway I got "fined" $2 for waiting longer than 30 days past the original (pre-bond) application, and they charged me $30 for a "title only" application, and they took my original bond. whew! title in the mail, they say. should be here in 2-3 weeks. we'll see. apparently I know more about this than the county tax office employees. and their computer. ha!